MEXICO: Coca-Cola Co to install drinking water fountains in schools

The Coca-Cola Co is to supply drinking water fountains to Mexican schools in a joint investment worth MXN26m (US$2m).

The soft drinks maker, which in January was hit by a sugar tax in the country, will help install “hydration centres” at 741 schools nation-wide, it said last week. The programme is in partnership with Latin America’s second largest Coca-Cola bottler, the Mexcio-based Arca Continental, and will benefit an estimated 169,000 students and teachers.

The fountains will “look after the Mexican youth through hydration, which is fundamental to their development”, said the Coca-Cola Mexico Foundation, the company''s charity arm in the country.

January's sugar tax added MXN1 (US$0.08) to a litre of “sugar-sweetened” beverage and is seen by the Government as a way to tackle Mexico's problems with obesity-related diseases such as diabetes.

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